Oh, how wonderful! I see that I missed something very important while I was not reading this past month. The pictures (and Wendy!) are lovely. Your happiness shines out from every one :-)

Tell me, Jian Shuo, is there a custom where somehow you had previously announced that you were “married”, but then some time passed before you were able to have the big formal wedding ceremony and celebration party afterwards?

The reason I ask is that our lovely daughter-in-law (my youngest son’s wife) is originally from Vietnam. Although her immediate family has become Catholic Christians, many members of her extended family are still Buddhist. It is her cultural and family custom that a small ceremony will take place at the home of the bride on the day that the groom and his family come to take her from their family into theirs. I believe that in Vietnam, after that small ceremony takes place, then the family goes out to the front of the house where the whole village joins in celebrating the marriage, and then the bride goes with the groom and they are considered married.

In this country, however, many Vietnamese families like Jenny’s still have the house ceremony on the morning of the “real” wedding, and then go on to be married in the church and have a big reception/party afterwards.

When Jenny and Jeff were married, our family went to her house in the morning and there was a special ceremony at which she wore a lovely red traditional Vietnamese dress with a headpiece, and at which her Uncle, as the eldest male relative on her father’s side, pronounced them officially man and wife.

It’s a good thing he did that, because later, when we went to the Catholic church for the “official” ceremony (at which she wore a typical white bride’s dress similar to Wendy’s), the priest became confused in the middle of the ceremony and actually forgot to say that they were married!

At the reception, she changed into a different “cake cutting dress”, and it looked like Wendy did that too, yes?

And I think that during the dinner when Jeff and Jenny went around to all the tables to meet and thank everyone for coming, she was wearing her Vietnamese red dress again.

I’d be very interested to hear more of the details of the ceremony, and whether you had some sort of earlier ceremony too at which you and Wendy became officially “married” before you had this big wedding party.

I think I remember when you first announced that the wedding would take place that you had to postpone it because of the problems with SARS, yes?

Well, from the look of these pictures, it was certainly worth waiting for, and a very happy occasion!

this are really very beautifull pictures, it’s like a fairy tail, I love it ! :d

But i also have a question, the message that you have received here above from charles kamara and maureen kamara, have you given your account to them because they are mailing me and I had already told them I couldn’t help them but now they say that I’m the only person that can help them. I’m just 17. I would like to know your opinion because I don’t trust this .